


Escaping Gotham

by Chiroptach



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Character Death, Language, Major Character Injury, Minor Character Death, The Iceberg Lounge, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-10 06:33:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20523521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chiroptach/pseuds/Chiroptach
Summary: Gotham city was always protected by the Batman, from the most important citizens to the criminals he tried to help. Until it seems Batman finally snapped. Now the villains of Gotham and police must join together to stop Batman when he finally decides to break his one rule.If you enjoy this first chapter please tell me, there's more coming soon.





	Escaping Gotham

  
  


Edward was ready, waiting for the Bat to swoop in. He was ready. He had a few henchmen ready to hold the Bat back while he told him his riddle, so the Bat would be forced to go around and complete the riddle. But of course, he couldn’t. Edward was smarter. He knew this time, the Bat would fail. Of course, as he always did, the Bat burst in from the ceiling, swooping down. He met one of the henchmen head on, while Edward prepared his speech. Edward took a deep breath and turned, just in time to see Batman break one of his henchmen’s necks. The man fell to the ground and blood came out of his nose. Edward paused, just looking down at him. His brain couldn’t process it for a moment. Batman  _ killed  _ a man. Edward’s whole speech fell out of his head. He ran out of the building towards the street and just kept running. He couldn’t even process why he was running or how far he had run until he was several blocks away and panting so hard he almost threw up. Edward stood up and looked around, nervously. Was he being followed? What had happened? Batman had killed someone. Right in front of him. He looked around. Was it on purpose? Batman didn’t kill. Batman didn’t kill. Things had a rhythm to them. Batman  _ never  _ killed. He didn’t even kill the Joker. Would he kill him? Edward started running again. He had to go somewhere the Bat wouldn’t be. Anywhere. 

The Iceberg Lounge was the only place he could think to go that at least seemed safe. Some of the other, stronger rogues stayed around there, as well as Oswald’s countless bodyguards. 

“Eddie, calm down,” Oswald said. “This was an accident.” 

“Or he’s not even actually dead,” argued Twoface. 

“I  _ know what I saw,” _ Edward said aggressively. “He died.”

“Quick, awful question. Did he shit himself?” asked Twoface.

“Batman? N-”

“The ‘dead’ guy!” Twoface said. “God Ed this scared the brains outa you.”

“How am I supposed to-”

“Death has this God awful smell, just this stench. Because when you die, you shit your pants.”

“Is that… actually?” Edward began.

“Oh yeah,” Oswald confirmed. “Joker thought for some stupid reason it would be funny to shoot up this place. Killed one guard. He smelled awful, and I have a pen full of penguins who only eat fish.” Edward paused. 

“I think there was a smell.”

“You’d know if there was a death smell. He’s probably not dead.”

“Well his neck was definitely broken.” 

“There’s your problem, Ed,” Oswald said. “Broken necks don’t instantly kill you. That’s a Hollywood thing.” 

“So he was in the process of dying,” Twoface noted.

“Well… I think it was an accident. Dumb bastard was bound to eventually mess up and hurt somebody more than he wanted to. It’s not that serious.”

“You’ve never seen death before?” asked Twoface.

“What? Me? Not closely,” Edward said. “I didn’t pay attention to it..”

“Death’ll scare you,” said Twoface quietly. “Oh God, speaking of fear.” Scarecrow walked in. Something seemed off. He moved to the table quietly, sitting next to Edward and actually took his mask off. He just stared at the table for a moment. 

“Get me a drink,” he said softly. Oswald did, looking him over. They didn’t see Crane without his mask when they weren’t in Arkham. He wore it constantly, never took it off, Edward had even seen him sleep in it.

“What’s wrong?” Edward asked. Crane paused.

“Batman.”

“What’d he do?” asked Twoface, looking to Edward for a second.

“I had a man with me- a henchman kind of, and he just.. He broke his neck,” said Crane. “And he’s sharpened his Batarangs a lot.” Crane pulled up the tattered sleave of his shirt revealing a massive gash through his arm. It was deep, and very smooth, instead of a tear.

“A Batarang did that?” Twoface asked. “Those things used to bruise they were so dull..”

“Normally he would aim for the back, or for your legs with them too,” Crane said. “He aimed for my head. I put my arm up to block it… I think that… I think he tried to kill me.” They sat at the bar.

“He killed one of my henchmen too,” said Edward, finally. 

“Are you sure he killed yours?” Oswald asked Crane.

“Absolutely. You know how death smells-”

“We just talked about that..” 

“When did… When did Batman start killing people?” asked Crane. There was a pause.

“Today’s the earliest I heard about it,” Twoface said. Oswald nodded. 

“He never did before,” Edward said. 

“Not even the Joker,” said Twoface. There was a pause. 

“Then everyone else is in danger,” Oswald said. 

“We need to let everybody know,” Edward decided. “As soon as possible.” 

“Is it even safe to head out?”

“We need to find a way to mass contact everyone,” said Harvey. “In a way Bats won’t realize we’re doing it.” 

“Why?” asked Oswald.

“Because, Bats hears things when we say them among ourselves. If we’re spreading around the fact that he’s murdering people he’ll probably murder us,” Twoface said. 

“How could we mass spread his murdering without him knowing we did it?” 

“I know a guy,” Twoface said. He paused for a moment, staring straight forwards, his expression purely blank for a moment. Then his body language changed completely, he hunched over and started panting heavily, eyes darting around. He was shaking.

“I haven’t been out in… I don’t know how long because  _ someone  _ won’t even let me be co-con!” he snarled. Edward had no idea what to call that man but he was definitely not Twoface. He had the same body.. But Edward knew Twoface had DID. He paused. Was that.. Harvey Dent? 

“Harvey Dent?” asked Edward.

“Yeah. What’s the other guy want?”

“Huh?”

“They don’t let me out. Him and the Judge don’t like letting me out unless one needs something that only good ol’ Harvey can do. What’s he want me to do?”

“Find a way to alert all the other rogues that Batman has started murdering people without Batman realizing we had anything to do with it so he doesn’t murder us too,” said Oswald. 

“Ohh.. He wants me to tell the press.. Wait- Batman is  _ murdering  _ people?!” Harvey exclaimed. “He wouldn’t-”

“I saw him kill someone, Edward saw him kill someone, and he almost killed  _ me _ ,” snapped Crane. Crane showed Harvey his wound. “A Batarang did this to me. He aimed for my head and I blocked it with my arm.” There was a pause. 

“Oh God…” Harvey held his head in his hands. “Then it’s not the old Batman.”

“What?”

“It’s  _ not  _ the old Batman. One of the Robins became Batman.”

“Look, Harvey, we can figure out who’s Batman and who’s not but right now we need to make sure no one else dies,” said Edward. 

“Fine,” Harvey said. “But I want to be out more.”

“Out?”

“Like this, talking to you all. All of you, Edward, Jonathan, and Oswald, you three make sure he lets me out more for this. Alright? Please?”

“Can we force him to do that?” asked Oswald.

“Peer pressure him, bully him, whatever, I just.. I’m tired of being repressed like I’m not a person. Got it?” They all agreed. “I’ll go to the press and tell them.. Harv knows that I’m in good with Vicki Vale still… I can tell her what’s going on, she’ll recognize the difference, that it’s me.. And report it. I’ll go and tell her.. Please get him to let me out more, I’m tired of being pushed down.”

“We will,” Oswald said. “I promise.” Harvey headed out. 

Harvey headed out the door, walking through the streets quietly, covering the sides of his face with the collar of the jacket he wore. He knew where to go, to Vicki’s house. She gave him her address a long time ago, telling him to come by when he had been still handsome and still just Harvey. Well, he hadn’t really been just Harvey then, but everyone only knew Harvey then. He went to her house once before, to report on things that had happened between Harv- or Twoface- and the Joker. She liked seeing him over sometimes. It was late, and if he didn’t know that she stayed up late, then he would be worried about waking her. He got to her door and knocked on it a few times. Then Vicki answered.

“Vicki?” Harvey said.

“Oh my God! Harvey,” she said, pulling him in. 

“Vicki I have to tell you something- this is important.” 

“What is it?” she asked. “It’s got to be a huge scoop, I haven’t seen you in so long.” 

“Batman- I don’t think it’s the same Batman but there is a Batman who is killing people. Edward Nygma and Jonathan Crane- Riddler and Scarecrow. Saw him kill people. He made an attempt on Scarecrow’s life.” 

“An attempt?”

“Sharpened a Batarang and threw it at him, sliced his arm to shreds.”

“I need a picture of that,” she said.

“What?”

“I need a picture of that wound- we could destroy Batman with a picture.”

“It’s not safe for you to come with me.”

“Here, I have a burner phone, just in case, with my number in it under V. Get a picture of it, send it to me, and I’ll print it out.”

“I.. Alright,” Harvey said, taking the phone. “Be safe Vicki.”

“You know I will. Haven’t died for a story yet.” 

He was worried, as he made his way through the night, and he heard something. He was somewhat paranoid, he wouldn’t be surprised if he was just hearing things. Then he heard leaves crunching behind him. He turned and almost screamed, seeing Batman there. He didn’t know what to do- what to say- Batman wouldn’t kill but something was happening-

“It’s  _ me _ -” he said. “ _ Harvey! _ ” He flinched as Batman got closer.

“Harvey, are you alright?” asked Batman. That was Batman- that was his voice. Could he confront Batman? Did he dare? No, Batman probably didn’t know Twoface knew yet, much less Harvey. 

“I’m scared-”

“Did you visit Vicki?” asked Batman.

“No,” said Harvey. “I didn’t talk to Vicki, I considered it. She wouldn’t let the other guy in though, probably thought I was him.” Batman put a hand on his shoulder. 

“I’m glad to see you Harvey,” Batman said. 

“I’m glad to see you too. Are you… Can I.. see one of your Batarangs?” asked Harvey, nervous, but sure Batman wouldn’t kill  _ him  _ so long as he was him. 

“Why?”

“Scarecrow got a weird injury.. He thinks it’s from a Batarang but I think it was something else.” Batman pulled out the Batarang and handed it to Harvey. Harvey took the Batarang in his fist and slammed it into his arm as hard as possible and bruised him and stabbed into his skin slightly. But it couldn’t have created the wound on Scarecrow. He considered telling Batman there was an impostor, that something was wrong, but he was afraid. Something kept him from telling Batman, though there was something he trusted in Batman. “Would you please… Take off your mask?” asked Harvey. 

“Why?”

“Something’s happening- I’m afraid- I can’t trust you and I don’t…” he paused. How long until someone else took over? He could feel himself slipping out. He bit down on his lip, forcing himself to stay there. “ _ Please.”  _ There was a pause.

“Harvey you are my oldest friend,” he said. “I… Look, Harvey… I can’t take off the mask but I can tell you… When.. When we were young, you promised me that you would kill the man who killed my parents and I promised to kill your father.” There was a pause. Harvey almost cried.

“Bruce someone is impersonating you-” Harvey broke and said it. 

“Impersonating me?”

“You as Batman! Someone is trying to make you.. I don’t know what’s happening but someone is making things- someone is-” Harvey blacked out for a moment, and only realized it because Bruce was at least ten feet from him, armed with a Batarang when he came to. He looked around. “Bruce what’s happening?” he asked, feeling a pain in his right shoulder. He touched it. It was sliced open, the way Crane’s arm had been.

“The Judge- He attacked me- kept yelling ‘guilty’,” Bruce said. Harvey held his shoulder. 

“Did a Batarang do this?” he asked. He looked to Bruce fearfully. Had Batman? Had Bruce? “Did you kill those people Bruce?” asked Harvey. His words broke in his mouth, uncertain, fearful, and most of all hurt. He knew  _ Bruce.  _ He trusted Batman. But now. 

“No, Harvey, listen to me-” began Batman, but Harvey panicked and by the time he was conscious again he was in the Iceberg Lounge. Harvey didn’t actually know how to get there so he figured Harv had done it. The Judge would have confronted him again. He sat there, in the bar, panicking. They looked at him, wondering what had happened. 

“Your shoulder-” said one of them softly. He couldn’t tell who it was. Softer voice, no accent. Nygma he guessed. He couldn’t focus, he was in shock. He had to do something. He grasped at the phone in his pocket, grabbing it, glad the other two hadn’t lost it and took a picture of his shoulder. 

“Crane, your arm,” said Harvey, grabbing at his wrist. Crane pulled up the sleeve and Harvey took a picture of it as well, sending the pictures to Vicki, along with the text  _ I had a run in with him tonight.  _ Harvey thought about adding his identity, telling anyone, but he was overwhelmed and suddenly, he was out again.


End file.
